More than 4,000 sign petition against plans for poultry farm in Rushden

Stephanie Weaver

More than 4,000 people have signed a petition against plans for a poultry farm with a capacity for 540,000 birds.

The Northants Telegraph reported last week that Bedfordia Farms Ltd has applied for the erection of 10 poultry buildings and associated infrastructure on land north east of the Westwood AD Plant in Bedford Road, Rushden.

The applicants already operate a large scale farming business on the county border with Bedfordshire with 6,000 acres of arable cropping and an existing pig breeding enterprise.

These proposals are to ‘further diversify’ the business with a new poultry unit and if given the go-ahead, each building would have a capacity of 54,000 birds so the total capacity would be 540,000 birds.

Documents submitted as part of the application state: “The use of the proposed poultry buildings is for the rearing of broilers from day-old chicks through to finished table weight.

“The broiler rearing cycle operates on an all in all out system, and each cycle takes 48 days.

“The broilers are reared for approximately 38 days following which the poultry buildings are cleaned out in preparation for the next batch of birds.”

However, the plans have attracted some opposition, including more than 30 comments made on the planning page of the website for East Northants Council, which will be considering the plans.

An online petition launched against the plans has also attracted more than 4,300 signatures.

The petition contains a number of reasons for refusing the plans, including it will ruin the vista, an increase in traffic on local roads and the A6, the smell, air pollution, noise pollution, and light pollution from the increased traffic.